We’re excited to announce that a PWGC associate, Dan Johnson, has been awarded the opportunity to work on a project teaching underprivileged schoolchildren in the Dominican Republic. Dan has taken a leave of absence starting this month, and will return to us in June.
Dan will be teaching on behalf of Focalare, an establishment which works to “build a more united world” through education. The position will be unpaid (although we expect it to pay dividends in experience and memories), so our President and Founder Paul Grosser, PhD, PE has awarded Dan a $1,000 stipend to help out!
“We are all proud of Dan and the effort he has shown as an associate at PWGC,” said Dr. Grosser. “I am sure his students will benefit from the same drive and enthusiasm he displays here at the office and in the field day in and day out. I wish him the best of luck.”
Dan has been with our firm’s Environmental Group as a Field Hydrogeologist/Environmental Scientist since June of 2014 and has built up an excellent record for himself. We are proud he can now use his skills to lend a hand to those in need.
“I want to thank Paul Grosser for allowing me to pursue this opportunity to teach in the Dominican Republic,” Dan has said. “I look forward to giving back and passing on the knowledge I have learned to the next generation. I am sure I will learn as much from them as they will from me.”
Dan has a B.S. from Marist College, and will be using those smarts to teach Biology and coach sports for 8th graders at the Café con Leche School. While there, he even plans to film his efforts for a documentary on his experiences teaching and living in the Dominican Republic, in hopes of raising awareness for the school. We wish you the best of luck, Dan! Have a great time!
Update on March 25, 2015:
Dan checked in with us at the office this week:
“Hope all is well! So the craziest thing happened the other day. I was preparing my class when a bug crawled across my desk—a little ant. I grabbed it and prepared it for viewing under the microscopes so I could teach an impromptu lesson on insect anatomy. I wanted to try it out on the younger kids before bringing it up to to eighth graders, because the little kids are my Spanish teachers. So in class, I let the kids look in the microscope first. Then I let the teacher of the class look last. The kids and the teacher loved it!”
